Inspired by this list from Sabotage Times I thought it was time I promoted what I think is the best comedy to come out of America since Curb Your Enthusiasm first aired, over ten years ago. There’s a couple of shows on the list that I’ll be checking out i.e. Parks and Recreation, and I can vouch for Community (as can pretty much everybody else who has seen it).
You may already know this, British film is in a rich and exciting run of form at the moment. After what seems like years of knock-off Guy Ritchie efforts and cheapo derivative horror we’re back amongst the forerunners of non-American cinema (especially documentary film making). Consistency appears to the be the name of the game too with a lot of solid efforts to go with a couple of really great contributions last year. In recognition of that I thought I’d do my own top twelve, Best of British for 2011 (I haven’t defined what British is so don’t get too upset if it’s looser or less loose than what you would assign). In ascending order:
“It’s an Australian tradition anyway”
When Let The Right One In appeared a couple of years it was championed by the horror community who recognised the neat stylistic intent of director Thomas Alfredson. Let’s make a vampire film more real by presenting it in as real a way as possible and throw in some Moodysson. Social realism balancing the source novel’s fantastical storyline perfectly. What Alfredson did for the vampire film, debut director Justin Kurzel does for the serial killer film here but more.
So what can we look forward to in 2012? Plenty by the looks of it. New films from Nicholas Winding Refn, David O’ Russell, Olivier Assayas, Abbas Kiorastami, John Hillcoat (The Proposition) returns with Wettest County, Nolan wraps up his Conservative’s wet dream trilogy, Ridley Scott has created more hype with his Alien prequel, Prometheus and Andrew Dominik follows up The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford with heist/mob film Cogan’s Trade. Tarantino may surprise us with Django Unchained and both upcoming Bens, Wheatley and Affleck, should hopefully be giving us something more complete now they’ve reached their third feature. Soderbergh is continuing his recent prolific form to go with new films from Jacques Audiard (The Beat My Heart Skipped), Wong Kar Wai, Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane) and Sacha Baren Cohen returns in The Dictator.
Before I enter into my own 2011 best of list (that will come before the end of the month) I thought I’d take a look to see what the overall consensus was first and also highlight the more reliable methods of assessment out there. I mean where do we get our recommendations to go and watch a film? Or do you even bother? Given the price of watching a film can be in excess of £10 sometimes (exclusive of sundaes, popcorn and what I can only assume are kobe beef hot dogs) it can be important to find out what the buzz is around a film before taking the plunge. After all, you can probably buy the DVD in four months for half the price.
Metacritic is always a good place to start, better than Rotten Tomatoes, because it compiles the average ratings given by critics so it doesn’t take into account personal film blogs. The big plus on that is a degree of reliability. The minus? When you’re finding the consensus you can usually miss some of the more interesting and unusual choices but it can start you looking for somebody with a good feel for what they’re watching. Find your favourite critics/media and stick with it. Metacritic’s best of 2011 is an aggregate of the critic end of year lists and makes good reading. Of the films I’ve seen in the list all of them were worth a watch so it’s a good place to start adding titles to my rental list. Alternatively they also do which were the best reviewed films of the year which gives the opportunity for a less frequently seen film to nudge its way into the list. So instead of a plethora of Pixar films cluttering up the list there’s Poetry, We Were Here and the excellent Nostalgia for the Light none of which received a great deal of publicity. Despite the lack of heavily hyped films it is an interesting list and one I’ll be discriminate about working through.
Rotten Tomatoes end of year list allows for independent film blogs input which means there can be considerable variety mixed with solid mainstream films that review well without being anything more than average e.g. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. With the overwhelming number of independent contributors I tend to sift through the odd critic review on there before looking at a film, having had my hands burnt on several indie horrors recently. Where Metacritic allows for the relative rating given by the critic, Rotten Tomatoes evaluates on a simple “Did they like it or not?” so we get no breakdown of how much the film was liked and Harry Potter appears even if it’s just better than okay. Still both offer a good starting point before you find the people who you trust.
Who do I trust? The three critics I utilise the most tend to be Roger Ebert, Mark Kermode and Peter Bradshaw. Ebert has an accessible style, Kermode’s diverse taste and Bradshaw an often contrary but interesting take on things. Of the three Bradshaw is the one I’m least likely to agree with yet I like his choices. Not always what I’d go for and he was one of those who celebrated the dreary, uninteresting upper middle-class family angst of Archipelago (one of my disappointments of the year). Of the three I liked Peter Bradshaw’s list the most (Ebert’s is here and Kermode on his film blog here) which was a surprise.
Ahead of these three Sight and Sound remains my benchmark i.e. I’ll watch anything recommended in there e.g. Archipelago, and usually they’re very reliable. Their end of year lists (compiled from around the world and not just those prominent online) often brings to my attention something smaller that sneaked under the radar, as well as nods towards foreign films we haven’t yet seen over here. Similarly, the Time Out team is pretty reliable too. Where the independent blogs can help out is in recognising those films that were ignored or forgotten about so when Breathless never got a look in a couple of years ago it’s inclusion in my best of the 00s list became more than meritorious.
As the awards season starts up my advice is to stick with the critics. I don’t buy into this people know best and never have. Artistic merit isn’t measured in dollars and if you’re relying on the Oscars, Golden Globes or even the BAFTAs for your choices be prepared for the odd piece of tosh masquerading as critically acclaimed. Critics may take a lot of stick but I’m more inclined to listen to them than this year’s best picture nominees marketing machines.
Forget Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, check these daredevils out. They must be giving away free holiday visas down the bottom.
